Weather

The dynamics in the atmosphere are starting to get a bit more organized in the western sections of the state where the potential for tornadoes is beginning to increase. The timing on the storms will be 8-9pm in the western sections of the state, and around 11-1 in the metro Atlanta area. The main threat for metro Atlanta will be damaging winds, possibly an isolated tornado as well.

It has been a rough morning for parts of Alabama with reports of a long tracked tornado hitting parts of Huntsville hard.... This was all along a retreating warm front that we talked about yesterday. This afternoon that warm front will have moved through all of N GA and will set the stage for later tonight. Storms are currently forming along a cold front in IL, KY, TN, and MO... This is the front that is heading towards our state. All of N GA is under a moderate risk as you can see below. All of the metro area is under a 10% chance of a tornado happening within a 25 mile point, with most of it under a 15% chance. Those are high probabilities folks..... The atmosphere will be condusive for tornadoes across parts of N Georgia later tonight into tomorrow morning. Strong Damaging winds are also possible as well as large hail. Again this is a serious situation for N Georgia later tonight.

We have storms delveoping all across the metro area this morning, as of 9:45 nothing is severe. As you can see down below there are more storms west of the metro area that will be moving in here soon. There is a lot of lightning with these storms. There are more storms to the north along the cold front that will be moving in later on this morning. The 3rd image below is what is called helicity. What that is is the amount of spin in the atmosphere and there is a lot of it just south of the front. The thing that is lacking this morning is instability, it is very limited. So as these storms continue to come in from the west and the north look for the main threat to be in the form of wind, hail, and heavy rain. There have been some unconfirmed reports of some wind damage in Carroll county.

Barrow County will be offering a Skywarn Storm Spotter Training class on Feb 2, 2012 in Winder GA. SKYWARN® is a volunteer program with nearly 290,000 trained severe weather spotters. These volunteers help keep their local communities safe by providing timely and accurate reports of severe weather to the National Weather Service.

The class is free and registration is required to ensure there is enough materials for everyone.

ATLANTA -- As 2011 draws to a close, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) encourages all Americans to understand the risks that surround them -- and for residents of the Upper Chattahoochee River Region, those risks include the possibility of flooding.

FEMA worked with the Georgia Department of Natural Resources to create maps of the 107-mile stretch of the Chattahoochee River between the Buford Dam and Coweta County, which includes Cobb, Coweta, DeKalb, Douglas, Forsyth, Fulton and Gwinnett counties.

These updated maps detail flood hazard and risk data with the ultimate goal of protecting homeowners from flooding.